The Path Of Stars
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: After parting ways with Zethrid and Ezor, Acxa finds herself on Earth in a rural place where she happens upon a pair of curious kids.


Earth is a quiet place. It's kind of peaceful, eve if she is there by accident, she decides that it is rather nice. There is a certain haze to the air almost golden, the air is warm. On the corner of the street is a lone mailbox overtaken by different forms of creeping ivy, she cannot name. A few yellow fuzzy looking flowers burst from the ground surrounding the rotting wood, the grass is tall, thick, and overgrown. The paint chipping away depicts some type of Earth avian. She doesn't know if she should be here, she doesn't think so. But it seems like a good place to think things over, it looks like it has been long abandoned and she can't foresee anyone intruding. She finds herself, a few feet from the mailbox, standing in a field of rolling yellow, the same color that the sun seems to paint the air. The grass is long, she plucks a strand of it and holds it up to a gadget to be analyzed. The quick scan identifies it as 'wheat'. She has never seen wheat before, it looks similar to some grasses from her own galaxy but not quite the same. Their seeds don't glow.

Again, she wonders if it is a good idea to stay. But after parting ways with Haggar and then Lotor and then her former friends Ezor and Zethrid, she doesn't see too many other options. The Galra Empire is much too unstable and she doesn't have many allies there. Earth though, not much attention is paid to it.

She looks around, it is so open. Everything is so open and the air is tinged with many scents. No doubt wheat is the most prevalent of the odors. But there is something else. Some kind of flower perhaps? She follows a dirt trail, eventually she should found the house that the mailbox belongs to. She just hopes that it is as abandoned as this road.

Her wandering leads her to a different type of field; this one grows tall—taller than she—and green. Some type of vehicle, something far less advanced than what she is used to seeing, plows through the field. It is kicking up a fine cloud of dirt. Acxa finds herself coughing on it. In the distance she can hear laughing, childlike and playful. She can't imagine that they would be taken seriously if they spotted her and told tale of the blue-skinned woman with the purple hair and the horns. But she burrows away into the field parallel to the one being plowed, she supposes it's better to draw as little attention as possible.

For the first time she considers that seeking refuge here is going to be harder than she thought. The place isn't so deserted as it initially looked.

She continues her walk, hidden by the large stalks. The sky is growing darker, a few stars pop up against the now deeper blues that push the oranges and golds down. It reminds her of home, she feels a few pangs in its absence. Parting ways, she decides, isn't going to be easy in the slightest. Maybe she should seek out Voltron and its paladins. Why not? It is _her_ path after all. Not Lotor's nor Haggar's nor anyone else's. But it has been months and they haven't been heard from. No, Earth seems somehow safest. She can't imagine that they'd go looking for her here.

The laughter grows louder and she can see the children; a boy and a girl. The girl wears her hair in braids that are becoming un-intertwined. She and the boy are barefoot, their hair is the color of the straw they play on. The girl takes a handful of it and throws it at the boy who makes a face—tongue protruding—and spits it out. As a girl she used to do similar things to her mother, though the grasses she had tossed were pink in color. The boy tugs at his overalls, tips his straw hat, and pouts, "ya got it all ov'r me."

The girl just giggles.

Acxa carries onward. As the dusk sets deeper in, she can hear different chirps and buzzes. At first she things that they belong the flickering bugs, but that can't be right. She reaches a hand out and captures one. In flashes in her hand, carefully she runs a pointer over it. She sees it spread its wings and before she can react it is drifting away and out of reach. She doesn't know if she likes them very much. There are so many of them dancing in between blades of wheat and stalks of—she finally decides to scan it—corn.

Finally, she comes to a building. It is not as inviting as the first two cottages she passed. That's how she knows that it will be her home until she can figure things out in full. The place is falling apart, she is weary of entering as part of the roof is going concave. Other planks of its wooden wall are flapping about as gusts of wind take them. But she'd rather be in there than exposed completely to otherworldly weather. The place is drafty and cluttered. There are holes in various spots in the wall. She takes to picking things off of the ground and inspecting them. Whatever these tools might be they are rusting. She recognizes one as a shovel—her people would have crafted it differently but she knows what it is for. There are other things; different types of blades, saws and pliers. Something that she knows she has the name for but can't quite place it at the moment. She sets the rusty tools aside and tries to make herself comfy.

She had been smart enough to bring food—just in case Earth couldn't provide—water, pillows, and one blanket. She doesn't have much else though; her gun, a change of clothes, and a pendent Ezor had given her so long before. The rest she'll have to scavenge.

She lays the pillows out but knows that sleeping on such hard ground is going to take some getting used to. With her hands behind her head she lays staring through a hole in the roof. She wonders if anyone of those stars is her home planet, if they are even part of her home galaxy. She doesn't think so. Just as she is beginning to drift off she is awakened by a rather spooky sort of sound. Her heart quickens as she scans the barn. Her eyes meet large yellow ones. The thing hoots again and she relaxes some, the creature seems harmless enough. But its call is uncanny. She nestles herself back up in the blankets. Since it is clear that she cannot sleep she beings to think again. And thinking isn't exactly calming it brings a longing for how things were when Narti was alive and well. When their group was still a group and she had a clear direction. For a while she had dreamt of following her own direction, now that she has the freedom she is overwhelmed by it. Daunted, a little frightened maybe.

Her musings are cut off again by two things, first a hoot and the spreading of wings, and then a figure appearing in the doorframe. She tenses.

"Woah, cool! See, Maureen, I tol' ya I saw a alien." He looked so smug as he cocked his straw hat.

Her heart beats faster, she could have sworn that she'd been more careful. She swallows.

"Are ya gonna take ov'r Earth, Brady says ya will." Maureen askes.

"I'm not going to take invade or over anything." Axca replies. She hopes that they won't mention her to anyone else, she doesn't want to be a public spectacle.

"But yer invading this barn." Brady observes.

She lifts a finger and puts it down, he has a point. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"We went 'n snucks out." Maureen says gleefully.

She thinks back to a time when she talked to children, she hadn't done it very much, so she falls back on a tactic that works on any age group. "I won't tell your parents that you snuck out if you don't tell them about me."

The pair exchanged looks. "Deal!" Maureen declared.

"No, no, not deal. Ya also have ta teach us space stuffs." He puts his hands on his hips boldly and holds his head high.

Acxa sighs, she supposes it would do her well to have someone to talk to. Despite it all, she never really fancied being alone. "Alright, I'll tell you all about the Galra and Alteans as long as you keep quiet."

"Ken ya take us home?" Brady askes.

"We kin'a got don't like the dark." Maureen adds.

"Ken we ride in your spaceship?" Brady questions.

Her spaceship! She groans to herself. She hadn't thought that one through. It isn't a large craft but it would be noticed. "No, no spaceship. But I'll walk you home." Most of the way, she adds to herself. These children were certainly going to make Earth interesting until she could find her way back to the cosmos.


End file.
